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                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, March 13, 1993                   TAG: 9303130171
SECTION: NATL/INTL                    PAGE: A-10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES                                LENGTH: Short

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OFFICER DENIES POLICE BRAGGED ABOUT KING

A policeman accused of beating Rodney King told "a war story" in the squad room while a wounded King waited in a patrol car for transfer to a hospital, a policeman testified Friday.

But Officer Daniel Gonzalez backed off supporting prosecutors' contentions that Officers Laurence Powell and Timothy Wind "showed" the beaten King to their colleagues, delaying medical treatment.

And Gonzalez insisted it was he - not Powell - who suggested going to the parking lot early in the morning of March 3, 1991, and looking at King, who was in a car with Wind.

Powell and Wind are on trial in federal court along with Officer Theodore Briseno and Sgt. Stacey Koon on charges of violating King's civil rights in the 1991 beating, which was videotaped by a bystander. The officers are white; King is black.

The officers' acquittals on state charges of assault and brutality touched off deadly riots in Los Angeles last year.

Gonzalez testified he was in the squad room writing a report when Powell came in, leaned against a desk and began talking to seven or eight other officers in the room.

"He wasn't bragging. He wasn't really happy about it or really sad about it," Gonzalez said. "He was stating what occurred."

After being questioned further by Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven Clymer, the witness said, "I think a more accurate term would be telling a war story."

After 30 to 40 minutes of talk, Gonzalez continued, he approached Powell and asked if he could look at the suspect.

He said he turned his flashlight on King's face and saw some swelling on King's face, but "it didn't look real bad at the time."

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